With the Outing Club

Dedication of Ravine Camp at Mt. Moosilauke Marks Major Achievement in Club History

MOST IMPRESSIVE and constructive achievement of the DOC in the last decade has been the building of the Moosilauke Ravine Camp and its twin structure, the Natt Emerson Camp. Though both buildings were completed last winter and used for a few months of skiing, they were not fully outfitted until this fall, nor was the terrain surrounding the Camp completely developed with novice, intermediate and expert trails and practice slopes until after a crew of axe-swingers went bicep-building this summer.

On October 22, therefore, the Camp received its formal dedication (sans champagne) with a guest list of nearly a hundred alumni, faculty, community friends, and undergraduates. The DOC clubs of Boston and New York were well represented; other guests were: Dan Hatch and Mrs. Hatch; Judge McLane and family; Dean Strong and family; and James K. Vessey, district ranger, representing the White Mountain National Forest; with many other Outing Club enthusiasts from Hanover and the surrounding territory.

James H. Brigden '39, new graduate manager of the Ravine Camp, served this large and hungry crowd of baptismal attendants with a fine buffet luncheon as a sample of his cuisine for the year.

Judge McLane addressed the visitors in behalf of the Trustees of the College and of the Outing Club, in the program which followed the meal. Other speakers were Ross McKenney, in charge of the building construction, and woodscraft adviser to the DOC; Jim Brigden; Hans Paschen, the new general manager of the Outing Club; and Ed Schecter '40, representing the executive council of the undergraduate club.

Special tribute was paid to Richard Butterfield '3O, to whom the Club is indebted for the attractive and competent architectural designs. To Prof. Richard H. Goddard '2O was awarded a life membership in the DOC in recognition of his untiring services through many years of the Club's development, and for his particularly active work during the construction of the Ravine Camp.

Having received the blessings of officialdom, the new Camp has now become another of the outdoor facilities of the DOC, waiting for snow to fill the trails with howling sitzmarkers.

MEMBERS SOUGHT ON NEW BASIS

This fall the Membership Department inaugurated a revolutionary policy for the annual membership drive. In accordance with the suggestions offered by a committee on policies, no longer are DOC members seen knocking on dormitory doors in an attempt to buttonhole each unsuspecting freshman and sell him a membership.

Feeling that the DOC is an organization whose existence depends upon the fun that the members receive from it, the leaders of the Club believe that it is more their task to indicate how the DOC can and should be a positive force in undergraduate recreation. If, then, freshmen are convinced of the worth of the Club to them, they will buy memberships of their own volition. It is on this basis that membership in the DOC is more likely to become a matter of some intrinsic worth to each participant, rather than a charity donation into which some students have felt they were hooked.

It was expected that this voluntary membership plan would, necessarily, reduce the membership income of the club, at least in its first year; but, surprisingly enough, the figures to date show remarkably little decrease on the whole, and some tendencies to increase in specific groups. Mort McGinley '4l, director of membership, has so competently handled the new plan that its success seems already to have surpassed expectations.

At this early date it is impossible to estimate what the result of this change in policy will be as regards the activity and interest of undergraduates in the Club. Arid, of course, it cannot be isolated from other directional changes made in the Club at the same time, such as the amendment which changed Cabin and Trail to a junior-senior honorary group. Other policies which were suggested could be interpreted most precisely as "redefinitions" existing policies or modes of activity within the Club.

The purpose of all of them was to attempt to re-capture the esprit de corps that seemed to have been evident when the Club was a smaller, more compact organism. To a certain extent it was realized that some aspects of the Club had grown too large for the personnel which was on hand to manage them, and too large, occasionally, for the existing interest in them. Wherever pruning could be done on such branches of the organization, it was wisest to do so. But the most practical program that could be followed was to try to make the DOC attain the inter-organizational spirit of the "ideal" small group, while retaining the facilities that could be managed only by a large, efficient structure.

The membership plan will be the first to show effects; the other changes may take a full college generation to manifest their benefits. At present we know our direction, and can see the trend of the Club moving that way. For the rest, we can only wait, sure that when the effects are really felt in full there will be another group of reformers defining new policies.

SCENES AT THE RAVINE CAMP DEDICATION Left, a general view of the large living room of the Ravine Camp at Mt. Moosilauke,showing guests enjoying the home cooking; right, a group of DOC leaders, including,from left to right, Ross McKenney, Jim Brigden '39, Hans Paschen '28T, and JohnRand '38.